The PDF Review Project

[Crothian]

I am going to have to bow out of the review process that Crothian has established. After one week of reviews it is obvious that the products are reaching the hands of people with an obvious bias against the type of work that I do. While I do appreciate the effort put into reviewing products it isn't in anyone's interest to continue to push products a reviewer will not like going in.

If the reviews had actual issues with the quality of writing or presentation I could better handle the end result. As it is, the reviews are spending most of their time discussing the product's size and -- in a few instances -- the fact that since I just did work WotC should have already done they felt my product wasn't worth the money with one review going so far as to tell people not to buy the product and wait for the material to be added to another OGC source. (Which leaves me wondering if the reviewer has plans to do such a thing himself.)

Good luck with the efforts, all.

With so many un tried reveiwers we were going to get hit and miss reviews. We were going to get a lot of different type of reviews and I was hoping that it would balance out. I'm sorry it was not as fruitful for you as you had hoped. A quick look over the notes I have and it seems that everything I sent out for Ronin Arts has been reviewed. Thanks for giving it a chance, Phiil, and while its against the odds if you change your mind you are welcome to come back.

 

[philreed]

I'm sorry it was not as fruitful for you as you had hoped.

Oh, the reviews were fine. My biggest reason for pulling out is that I had a vision of a review in which the reviewer complained about a fantasy product because it didn't fit his modern horror campaign.

This is only my impression from a week of watching the process in action but it feels as if reviews are randomly assigned to reviewers without any thought of a particular reviewer's pre-existing bias for or against product types of sizes.

While I trust experienced reviewers to understand their own feelings and to strive to present fair, objective reviews a lot of the people that have been passed PDFs for review have no qualifications beyond volunteering. No doubt many of them will grow with time but it's not in my best interest to subject my company to their growing pains.

As Gareth mentioned previously, a review from a customer that was interested enough to buy a product is more valuable than a reveiw from someone who sees writing the review as a chore. A chore they must get through to be rewarded with another free product, I might add.

 

[Crothian]

This is only my impression from a week of watching the process in action but it feels as if reviews are randomly assigned to reviewers without any thought of a particular reviewer's pre-existing bias for or against product types of sizes.

Well, I hand out PDFs based on the info the reviewers give me. Most of them really have no idea what they would like to review as this is their first ever review. Some had too specific criteria of what they wanted to review. I have a limited selection and occasionally I just did my best to find something that worked. But you are right, I did fail with getting the right product to the right person at times.

 

[philreed]

But you are right, I did fail with getting the right product to the right person at times.

I'm sure the process will flow smoother as you refine it.

A suggestion: Inform anyone that volunteers that they must have six reviews on EnWorld before you'll begin providing them with free PDFs to review. That will help to weed out those who aren't serious and help the reviewer to gain a little experience before being admitted into the project.

Anyone looking to write reviews should have no problems at all finding six products to review. Hell, even if they don't own six books or PDFs there are many, many free PDFs at www.rpgnow.com and www.wizards.com/dnd that a candidate could draw from. I suspect many people would enjoy reading short reviews of some of the free PDF adventures available at the Wizards site.

 

[Crothian]

I'm sure the process will flow smoother as you refine it.

A suggestion: Inform anyone that volunteers that they must have six reviews on EnWorld before you'll begin providing them with free PDFs to review. That will help to weed out those who aren't serious and help the reviewer to gain a little experience before being admitted into the project.

I am trying to think of ways to make the priocess run smooth and I like your suggestion. Anyone else is of course able to chime in here. I did set the bar a little low for entering.

 

[Umbran]

My understanding of reviewing is to apply a fair & objective 'eye' to the product regardless of personal tastes? Am I wrong?

To a certain extent, yes, you are wrong. It simply isn't possible for someone not born on Vulcan to keep their personal tastes out of reviews. If there is no personal taste involved, the writer cannot refer to the quality fo the product. He or she coudl tell you what was present in the work, but could not tell you if it were good or bad. And that would be an overview, not a review.

Any review must and will be based upon a set of opinions about what is important, and what is good. The trick for a reviewer is to have a set of opinions that reflects or is useful to his or her target audience. It is up to the reader to find reviewers that match their own personal tastes.

 

[pogre]

I'm sure the process will flow smoother as you refine it.

A suggestion: Inform anyone that volunteers that they must have six reviews on EnWorld before you'll begin providing them with free PDFs to review. That will help to weed out those who aren't serious and help the reviewer to gain a little experience before being admitted into the project.

Interesting...

The initial complaint was that there were not enough reviews and now we must raise the bar.

I would suggest quite the opposite - let anyone review a product. Look over their review and decide if the quality warrants sending them another pdf.

The project is about getting more reviews out there of more products - raising the bar for entry into the project is not a good way to do this IMO.

I welcome any critiques of my reviews posted thus far - pogueclan AT yahoo and then dot com.

pogre

 

[philreed]

Interesting...

The initial complaint was that there were not enough reviews and now we must raise the bar.

I would suggest quite the opposite - let anyone review a product. Look over their review and decide if the quality warrants sending them another pdf.

I think there needs to be a middle ground to make the process valuable. As it is now, someone could come in and be given a free PDF and then never write a review. Sure it's just a PDF, but it's also time for everyone involved.

Maybe six is too many, I'm not sure. But I think requiring someone to have at least a few reviews already posted isn't asking too much.

 

[Turanil]

About reviews and the Enworld community...

... Let me suggest something: Under each review is a "Post Comment" button or something. Like a thread, everyone can post. I suggest that people who know about a product, and if they have strong opinions about it and read the review, they also could comment. This would make for mini-reviews and clarifications or objections added to the review. Also, if some readers want additional information they should ask for it. This could certainly help and generate more info for the reader.

Just my 2 cents...

 

[reveal]

Another suggestion: Crothian could request the first review go through him first. If it passes muster, it gets posted and the reviewed is free to review at his/her hearts content.